'92 7.3 Ford

[KIKER]

A friend of mine is looking to get into a cheap 3/4 ton pickup to haul his portable welding business job to job. He found a '92 Ford 7. 3 with just under 300,000 miles for sale for $4995. He took if for a test drive and it died on him twice. The car lot guy brought him 5 gals. diesel and after he got it started, it seemed to run just fine. Does anyone here have any pros or cons concerning a Ford of this vintage? He likes the price range so he doesn't have to finance. I might could find him a Dodge for a little more, but no telling how far we would have to travel. He will turn 69 years old next month and still burning rods!

Thanks!

 

[mpaulson]

Those were about the best engine Ford ever had in the diesel pick ups. The earlier 6. 9's had cylinder wall cavitation problems and needed a coolant additive. That 7. 3 and the year or two after that one when they added the turbo were the best. I had a 92 and added a Banks turbo to it and turned the fuel up some and drove it till it had about 320K on it, and never had any engine troubles, and had lots of power with the turbo. There was nothing wrong with it when I traded it in. The only reason I traded it was because my brother-in-law bought a new 97 cummins and straight piped it and I had to have that sound!:-laf

 

[HBarlow]

Jimmy,

The old Navistar bus motor was not a Cummins but was a good engine compared to the Sick. Ohhs and Sick. Fours. With no knowledge of the truck's prior use and maintenance he could be buying a lot of expensive repairs or it might give him good service for several years. I heard of transporters who ran them 400k miles.

Bill Stockard knows a lot about them because he sold lots of school buses and lighter medium duty trucks with those engines years back.

 

[rscurtis]

I had an '88 E350 with that engine, it was a pretty good truck for the 18 years I (and any number of employees) used it. While I don't know the local market, that number sounds high for a 20 YO truck with 300K on it. Stalling could be a sign that the injection pump is on its way out. Check the exhaust- if it burns your eyes or has a blue haze, it's the pump. Fortunately, it's a cheap pump to rebuild. As I learned (the hard way), only use OEM Ford glow plugs, unless you like changing them all the time.

 

[Bill Stockard]

Bill Stockard knows a lot about them because he sold lots of school buses and lighter medium duty trucks with those engines years back.

If you are referring to the IH/Ford 7. 3L IDI engine, the successor to the original 6. 9L IDI engine, our dealership parts department had them in a couple of Ford E350 vans we used for parts deliveries. We ran them for around 250K miles. The vans and the engines were "tired" and pretty much used up. The down time and maintenance costs were too high to continue using them.



As far as use in medium duty trucks, I wouldn't sell the engine to my customers. The 7. 3L Powerstroke which came later had a much better reputation in a Ford pickup, but I continued to refuse to sell them for use in a medium duty truck.



Bill

 

[JJPage]

My older brother has an early 94 Ford 7. 3, the last ones before the Power Stroke moniker was used. Other than routine maintenance, and replacing the injector return fuel lines, I don't believe he's had any problems. It is still a very nice truck, he's quite fond of it.

 

[HBarlow]

How many miles on your brother's '94?

 

[JJPage]

How many miles on your brother's '94?

I just spoke with him, he actually just sold it to his Son, said it has 186k.

 

[S.Morris]

From my experience with the 7. 3's in the early years of the turbo model. If they worked hard, they were pretty much all in by 300,000.

 

[KIKER]

Thanks to all for the replies, but I think Billy has found a different pickup for about the same price and several years newer. This one is an '04 Chevy with the Duramax engine. I think there are some year model trucks to avoid and some are desired, but I don't know which. He'll have it bought before I could find any info for him, as he spends his money pretty fast. He's heard that you can't take it with you, so he's trying to make it even out in the end!